David Bianculli

Kimmel plays a clip from Newsmax in which a correspondent presents a rather unusual explanation for Kimmel's reinstatement.

Jimmy Kimmel Live has been reinstated on most of these ABC stations.

Well, many of them anyway.

The show's next original telecast is scheduled for Monday.

Coming up, I review The House of Guinness, the new period TV series from Stephen Knight.

This is Fresh Air.

Stephen Knight, creator of the intense British period dramas Peaky Blinders and A Thousand Blows, is back with a third one, which premiered this week on Netflix.

It's an eight-part series called The House of Guinness and tells the story of the battle for control at the venerable Irish brewing company in the 1860s.

Let's begin by noting the way Stephen Knight begins The House of Guinness.

he starts with a very unusual and very freeing disclaimer.

This fiction, it says in a message superimposed on the screen, is inspired by true stories.

Right up front, that gives Stephen Knight the creative license to do just about anything he wants with his story and his characters, even though it's taking its inspiration from actual events, locations, and personalities.

The House of Guinness has been described as a sort of 1860s succession, with the adult children of a very wealthy and powerful man jockeying to gain control of his empire.

And there were indeed four grown children of Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, all of whom had their own ideas about what to do with his fortune and his beer-producing empire.

But in the House of Guinness, Sir Benjamin, Lord Mayor of Dublin, Member of Parliament, owner of the dominant Irish brewery, dies almost immediately.

At his memorial service, the bishop, played by Sean O'Callaghan, lays out the stakes for the surviving family members.

But most of all,

At the reading of the will, the parcels of the father's kingdom are handed out, but unevenly and with a purpose.

The eldest son, Arthur, is forced to work with the youngest son, Edward, to run the brewery.

The black sheep of the family, the wild child, Ben, is severely restricted as to funds and influence.